Family: Proposed rule would keep children from working on farm

Monday

Nov 28, 2011 at 12:01 AMNov 28, 2011 at 5:01 AM

Area farmers and some of their children say, in the long term, few things are as healthy for a child as growing up and working on a farm.

But that lifestyle could be off limits soon, because of a proposed U.S. Department of Labor rule designed to prevent accidents by keeping children younger than 16 clear of all farm equipment and some types of livestock.

Area farmers and some of their children say, in the long term, few things are as healthy for a child as growing up and working on a farm.

But that lifestyle could be off limits soon, because of a proposed U.S. Department of Labor rule designed to prevent accidents by keeping children younger than 16 clear of all farm equipment and some types of livestock.

In September, the Labor Department proposed a rule change that, among other things, would prohibit those children from operating almost all power-driven equipment, milking cows, herding animals on horseback or working with adult, intact male animals. There would be an exemption for children working on farms owned by their parents in the rule. The department is taking comments on this until Thursday.

Fourteen-year-old Julie Meerman, of Coopersville, said she wouldn’t be able to milk or help sort cows if the rule is enforced. She and her friends in the Coopersville FFA, a group for teens interested in farming or animal science, have passed out fliers protesting the change.

“You get hurt once in awhile, but it’s not a big deal,” she said about farmwork.

“Kids can get hurt other places, too, like on the playground. For country folk, this is their playground. In the country, kids like to work.”

Julie works at Grassfields Organic Cheeses, a farm run by her father, Luke Meerman. But her uncles are part-owners of the farm — a fact that would keep her from qualifying for the rule’s exemption for children working on farms owned by immediate family members.